AAG Paper session: “Rising to the challenge: defining the contours of a new 21st century critical urban theory”

This session enquires strategically and critically into the current tradition of critical urban theory (CUT) and calls for creative reformulations. The task of articulating alternative forms of CUT has been piecemeal and implicit. Now is the time to formally and explicitly address this exciting challenge.

Brenner at al.’s recent (2012) critically-acclaimed volume, Cities for People, Not for Profit which, while offering some challenging and illuminating perspectives on the impact of the current crisis in global capitalism also admits that current CUT struggles to keep up with the ‘restless periodicity and extraordinary slipperiness of the urban phenomenon’ (p.117). The rapid transformation and expansion of urban space (often referred to these days as ‘planetary’ urbanism) challenges the binary simplicity and clarity of traditional neo-Marxist-based CUT with regards to the…